Bill Hoest

(7 February 1926 - 7 November 1988, USA)

Bill Hoest was an American cartoonist, best known for creating the cartoon gag panel 'The Lockhorns'. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Hoest spent two years in the Navy and studied art at Cooper Union. Bill Hoest's first art job was as a greeting card designer from 1948 to 1951. He left to become a freelancer and soon contributed cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's and Playboy. He started working on comic strips when he became Harry Haenigsen's assistant on 'Penny' during the 1960s. Hoest left the strip in 1970 to create his own strip, 'My Son John', that was distributed by Chicago Tribune - New York News Syndicate.

In 1968, Hoest created the single panel cartoon feature 'The Lockhorns', and the ever-arguing couple was an instant hit. A Sunday feature was added in 1972. Bill Hoest followed this success with 'Bumper Snickers' for the National Enquirer in 1974 and the daily strip 'Agatha Crumm' in 1977. Hoest became cartoon editor of Parade magazine in 1979, and created features like 'Laugh Parade' (1980) and 'Howard Huge' (1981) for this magazine. His last comic strip creation was 'What a Guy!' in 1987. Bill Hoest died of cancer in 1988, after which his widow, Bunny Hoest, took over his features together with her husband's former assistant, John Reiner.